Safe driving with your SUV throughout the year

As summer comes to an end and we start moving into autumn, many of us start thinking of changing their SUV summer tyres to winter tyres, to ensure that their SUV is as safe as it should be. However, if you belong to the ones that have decided to go with a set of SUV all-weather tyres, then you don’t have to worry about changing tyres. This is at least true if you choose a set that are approved for winter conditions and have the 3PMSF(3 Peak Mountain Snow Flake) -symbol on the sidewall of the tyre.

This symbol ensures that the tyres have been tested and
certified that they will manage in winter conditions on snow and ice. This is
different from the S+M rating, that show that the tyres have traction on mud
and snow, but not necessarily in all winter conditions. If you drive in
countries where you have to have winter tyres during the winter season, they
will be required to have the 3PMSF-symbol to be legal.

The all-weather tyres also have a rubber compound that will
have the right softness through the temperature range that is present during
both summers and winters. This is very important both for the wear as well as
the grip of the tyres. Summer tyres have very little grip during the winter,
due to the fact that they become very hard at low temperatures and winter tyres
wear faster during high temperatures.

You will always be better off to have dedicated tyres for
the seasons, but depending on the area where you live, you might be having more
blurred lines between the seasons and want to make sure that you have safe and
reliable tyres that you can drive with regardless of the weather conditions.
That combined with the convenience of not having to worry about when to change
tyres and having two sets of tyres. You do however need to rotate the tyres
between the rear and front tyre position, to ensure that the wear will be even,
so that all the four tyres will wear out at the same speed and will need to be
replaced at the same time. Check the tread depth level on a regular basis, so
that you know when you reach the 4 mm tread depth level.